Tigers’
Carle
Resigns

Newport — Larry Carle is a passionate man and he doesn’t always keep his feelings to himself. On Sunday night, Carle, the Newport football coach for the past 34 years, spoke freely and openly at the team’s breakup dinner. That outspokeness cost him his job.

“My father was a blunt man, and he taught me to be blunt,” said Carle in a phone interview on Thursday.

“I can have a big mouth and not always be politically correct, but I’m not apologizing for anything.”

Apparently, comments he made in regards to a hazing incident that occurred early in the football season, are what led to Carle’s resignation.

The incident reportedly involved players being “paddled” with a canoe paddle. Several players were suspended.

“We dealt with it at the time,” Carle said.

However, at the Sunday team event, parents in attendance apparently felt that Carle had not treated the incident seriously enough.

“I guess I kind of de-emphasized the event and some parents went to the superintendent,” said Carle.

“I got a call from Athletic Director Doug Beaupre on Tuesday morning ... and I have resigned.”

Newport Middle High School principal Linda Sutton declined to talk about the situation since it involved a personnel matter, but confirmed that Carle had resigned and she had conducted an exit interview with him.

“I’m not at liberty to discuss anything else on the matter,” she said.

Beaupre was away at a conference at Waterville Valley and could not be reached.

Carle has been a highly successful coach at Newport, his teams reaching the championship game seven times with four championships. He has also been in the middle of controversies off the field.

One time he went to the New Hampshire Education Association for assistance after getting fired from his coaching job. Two years ago he resigned from his teaching position and the school board thought he was resigning from his football coaching job as well.

There were several meetings between Carle and board before the situation was ironed out and Carle was allowed to return as coach.

But this time, Carle is not putting up a fight.

“Maybe something I said was sarcastic humor that was taken the wrong way,” said Carle. “Sometimes the jokes Mark Twain told contained some pain.”

Carle also said he has no plans of coaching anywhere else. “Nah. An albatross has been taken off my shoulders. They have found a way to leverage me out.

“I’m all done coaching.”

Carle’s resignation has perhaps come at the right time. He has been a year-long critic of the current New Hampshire grid realignment where smaller schools have been grouped with larger schools.

“What do we have in Newport — 320-350 kids — while we’re matched up with Pelham and Stevens, both with more than 600,” he said. “We have heroically taken on the bigger schools, but this year I saw just too much damage. This may sound like sour grapes, but it just is a lot of nonsense. I saw terrible injuries.